1883.] Flying Squirrel in Confinement. åI 
now have in confinement eat. birds’ eggs with great satisfaction, 
even when plenty of nuts of three kinds are before them. 
After the weather began to grow cold I placed, one evening, on 
the floor a handful of acorns before Skip was let out, He began his 
frolic as usual, and finally ran upon them. 
The circumstances were such, that the acorns awakened in him 
a new: and intense emotion which,in.an instant. seemed to fill his 
whole being to overflowing... For;a few minutes | he appeared 
transformed into,a wild -squirrel and, went bounding about the 
reom shying from objects with which. he was’ perfectly familiar, 
and Sstarting)at-the slightest noise, He soon returned to the pile 
of nuts and took one of them) in his mouth, running. with it to.a 
corner.of the room, where he made a hurried, eager effort to.bury 
it, thumping the acorn upon the floor as if he was endeavoring to 
push it beneath the surface.: After from three. to) five thrusts, 
made.as rapidly as one can count without, separating the words, 
he made as, many strokes with. his fore, feet upon, the carpet, 
scratching asif- to cover) the acorn up. This. done’ he hurried 
back to the pile of acorns, seized another, rushed) back. to, the 
same corner again; going through the same motions as before. I 
kept his pile supplied, and,he worked during a full half hour, dey 
positing a few nuts incall corners of the room, behind table legs,: 
behind the books in my secretary, and in the pits made. by the 
tie-buttons in all the upholstered chairs. | The next evening. be- 
fore letting him, into the room, I placed an assortment of nuts. 
upon the floor, among which were acorns, hazel-nuts, hickory- 
nuts, pecans and English walnuts, all of which he had been fed 
upon frequently, exhibiting but dijtle preference for either, so far 
as I observed. - 
On discovering the pile, Sie did, aot: appear agitated as. on po 
previous evening, but set at once to carrying off the acorns and. 
hazel-nuts, hiding them with the same motions as before; but to 
my surprise he touched. none of the, other nuts. I tried. him on. 
succeeding nights with the same, and to me strange results, for 
acorns and hazel-nuts are the only ones.that grow in the vicinity 
where the squirrels were taken, The piget hirkorga is. founds An 
abundance not more than ten miles distant.. ; 
Have we here inherited mental attributes so ines: as not are 
to originate the generic act of storing up nuts on the approach of 
cold weather, but so specific a form of it as a selection of the two 
